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The Security Council today authorized the temporary redeployment of peacekeepers from the Organization's operation in Burundi (ONUB) to its mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) to strengthen security and oversight for the upcoming Congolese elections.

The United Nations began airdrops of food relief on Wednesday to tens of thousands of people displaced by fighting between the national army and Mayi-Mayi malitiamen in Katanga, the south-eastern province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a UN official said.

Some 73 presidential candidates have registered for the upcoming elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), but the main opposition leader was not among them and the commission has not set a date for the elections.

Registration for Congo's elections closed late Sunday with more than 70 people signing up for the presidential race and 4,000 aiming for a seat in parliament. The continuing absence of the veteran opposition UDPS party is raising concerns for the elections, which are meant to bring peace to the war-torn Congo.

Thousands of Congolese civilians in the northeastern district of Ituri arrived on Thursday at the port town of Kasenyi on Lake Albert, on the border with Uganda, after they fled fighting between the national army and militia groups, a local official said.

At least 1,000 residents of two villages in the Democratic Republic of Congo's northeastern district of Ituri sought refuge on Wednesday around a camp of Bangladeshi UN troops following fighting between militiamen and the national army, an official of the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC) said.

Civic education ahead of elections scheduled for June is of "utmost importance" to sensitise the public for the democratic process, the head of the Democratic Republic of Congo's Independent Electoral Commission, Apollinaire Malumalu, has said.

The Council of the European Union announced on Thursday that it had approved "the concept" of EU troops supporting MONUC, the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) during the presidential and legislative elections process this year.

Some 280 militiamen have withdrawn from the village of Katoto, in the northeastern district of Ituri in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in the face of advancing government troops, a senior military officer said on Friday.